Sightseeing pilot ends up in cold water

U.S. Coast Guard officials said Thursday a pilot is lucky to be alive after his single-engine plane crashed into the ocean 7 miles off Half Moon Bay.

The pilot had rented an Aeronca Champion - a two-seat, fixed- wing plane - to spend the day sightseeing. He had flown alone out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose. But just around 3 p.m., his engine failed and he issued a mayday alert before plummeting into the water, said Coast Guard Lt. Lane Steffenhagen, who coordinated the rescue efforts from S an Francisco International Airport.

The pilot, whose name is not being released by the Coast Guard at his request, was able to free himself from the plane and stand on top of it waving his arms for a few minutes as it sank.

A Coast Guard station in Point Reyes had picked up his mayday signal, and a Coast Guard helicopter in the area dropped a life raft, which the man was able to reach. Air National Guard helicopters out of Moffett Field were in the area performing training exercises. One of those helicopters released a cable with a sling on the end that the pilot was able to buckle around his upper body. They then raised him into the helicopter.

In all, the man was in the water about 20 minutes. Steffenhagen said the water temperature was around 49 or 50 degrees and that survival time in that temperature would be about an hour. He was suffering from severe hypothermia, and his body temperature had dropped to 92 degrees.

The plan was to take him to Stanford University Medical Center, but that hospital's helicopter pad couldn't handle the size of the Air National Guard helicopter, Steffenhagen said. Instead, they flew the man to SFO, where paramedics treated him for hypothermia. He also had lacerations and was transported via ambulance to a hospital, where he was expected to be quickly released.

"He's extremely lucky to be alive - the circumstances couldn't have been much better for him," Steffenhagen said. "I'm just amazed. Usually it doesn't work out this well."

Steffenhagen said the man was very appreciative of the rescue and embarrassed by the situation.